Word to the Wise
Friday, May 1, 2009 - Friday in the Third Week of Easter [St. Joseph the Worker]
[Genesis 1:26 - 2:3 and Matthew 13:54-58]Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter's son?"
In class-conscious or caste-bound societies, birth is destiny! If you are the only son of the village carpenter, you learn to be a carpenter, not a wandering rabbi wonder-worker! No one in the village ever saw Jesus studying under the tutelage of some great rabbi! He had stepped beyond his "station" in life, and that could be a source of suspicion! But Jesus came to let it be known that such distinctions are not from God, despite the conviction of many then (and NOW) that all hierarchies as historically expressed (not necessarily in principle) are designated by God, whether they be social or political or theological. That kind of talk, which included his family, was startling for its time. The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was instituted, in part, because of the way in which Communism exalted labor to the level of a secular deity. The church was a bit slow to recognize the rights of workers because the church was too connected with certain other "hierarchies" in the world. But once Pope Leo XIII wrote his famous encyclical, Rerum Novarum, there has been a consistent preaching from the highest levels of our ecclesiastical hierarchy that workers are not material objects to be consumed, but humans to be cherished. Therefore, those who had been regarded as born to the bottom of the ladder by "God's will" were found to be equal to those who were "to the manor born." We Americans think we live in a class-less society, but that is not true. We may be constitutionally suspicious of "hierarchies," but we dote on royalty and celebrities and "high ranking" politicians. The Lord has given us a good example in one of his creatures, the bee! No worker bees, no hive! The Queen can lay as many eggs as she wants, but if the worker bees don't do their thing, the whole enterprise collapses. Our church has a divinely instituted leadership that we call "the hierarchy." But we must always remember the character who appeared along the way of a newly crowned Pope with a stick holding some burning flax and calling out "Sic transit gloria mundi! (Thus passes earthly glories.) The Lord gave the boat a rudder in the hierarchy. But there are many ways of being a captain, and the feast of St. Joseph the Worker should be a reminder to members of our hierarchy as well as to the rest of us that we are ALL in the same boat and the rudder won't help if the others on board are alienated by the captain! He's not the one who will bail out the boat! AMEN
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